Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1887-09-25
THE RAILROAD IN POLITICS.

The San Francisco Post says that
Charles Croker has been talking to the
Pacific Railroad Commission, and has
managed to say a great deal. The testl-
mony of the railroad owners before the
commission has uniformly been as unfor.
tunate in what it left unsaid as in what
it said. Mr.. Croker was evidently
warned by the misfortunes OF his pre-
decessors, but he was no more fortunate
than they. In trying to keep out OF the
pit, he has fallen into the mire.
Mr.. Croker lays all the troubles Of
himself and his road to politics. "Pol.
itics," he said to the commission, sis the
root of all this trouble, and when the
road is out of politics it will prosper
SIN reply to another question" the
report goes on to say, "the witness said
that there was never a penny in stocks,
bonds or money offered to any legislator
to secure corrupt legislation"
The people of this State can %candidly
agree with the statement that the
troubles of the road are due to politics.
1t has certainly been in trouble ever
since it has been in politics; but how did
it get there! There is no mystery about
the business. The railroad is in politics
because it went there, and it stays in
politics because it sees an interest in do.
ing 80. There was no compulsion about
it. For twenty years it has voluntarily
gone into every convention, election and
Legislature in the State, and has bullied,
dictated and influenced nominations and
votes. It has been Gin politics" will
fully. The railroad was a necessity to
the State. The men who went into pol
itics to "cinch" it could not have sue
ceeded. It was patience and not politics
that was needed to protect the road.
The road chose politics, and has deliber.
ately fed and encouraged as corrupt a
gang of politicians as ever dipped their
fingers into a State Treasury.
Mr.. Crocker's statement that there
never was a penny in stock, land or
money offered to any legislator to secure
corrupt legislation is creditable, but the
meaning of his statement seems to be
much involved in mental reservations.
There are two questions that were not
asked, that Mr.. Croker might have had
some difficulty in answering frankly and
to his own advantage if they had been
asked. What would have been Mr..
Crocker's answer if the commission had
continued as follows:
Was any consideration offered to any
legislator to secure legislation that was
not corrupt?
Was any consideration offered to any
legislator to defeat corrupt legislation ?
With the railroad definition of corrupt
legislation in mind, and remembering
that these questions were neither asked
nor answered, there is no reason to doubt
MI. Crocker's sincerity in the assertion
that he actually did make.
Mr.. Croker, perhaps, does not know
all that his admissions of the railroads
presence in politics may imply, but it is
a matter of notoriety in this State. He
knows as a matter Of course that the
nominating conventions Of both parties
have been corrupted by his agents; that
no man who did not favor the railroad
could get a nomination or could be
elected if by any chance he got on the
and that the man who was to be
defeated and the man who was to be
to any position that concerned
the railroad was known before the con.
ventions met. He may not know how
far the power of the roads agents has
been used to extort money for nomina-
that did not oncer the road at all.
The presence and acts Of the railroad
lobby at Sacramento are notorious.
When the Legislature met and the lobby
and lawyers of the railroad appeared be.
it and about it, the people under
stood that they were there to do the
railroads work, and that they did it. 1t
is notorious that they went even fur.
Their. Whether the railroad knew it or
not, the railroad lobby has had a finger
in every corrupt scheme that has been
Matched at the capital. Legislators
were bought, hired, RETAINED what
ever they choose to call it-not for a
particular bill, but for the season. They
voted as the lobby babe them, whether
It concerned q bill fixing freights and
or the opening of a turnpike road
in Mendocino.
The lobby is the railroad lobby, but it
has not hesitated to amuse its leisure
any corrupt scheme that gave it a
,hance to extort money. Nothing has
been too great or too small for it, from